


always kokiri

by mettrioli



Category: The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time
Genre: Bromance, Fluff and Angst, Other, Post-Game(s), Theyre just friends, theyre friends and appreciate one another
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-28
Updated: 2019-11-28
Packaged: 2021-02-18 06:54:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21590335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mettrioli/pseuds/mettrioli
Summary: Zelda promised Link he'd get his time back. But, was home even the same?
Relationships: Mido & Link
Comments: 2
Kudos: 29





	always kokiri

**Author's Note:**

> for those whove forgotten, mido is tje carrot head who prevents u from going to the deku tree
> 
> they're friends ok i found this and i really needed some cheering up bc shits been wack as of late :(

Leaves dusted the tops of Link's ears, welcoming him back to the undergrowth after so long. The sun flowing through the curtains of leaves hit his face with a wave of dopamine, more than twenty smiles could give.

He was home.

His eyelashes draped over his cheeks as a smile cracked through his stoic features. Every one of his senses was swarmed with forest and green and _home_.

Link broke into a run, giggling like the child he was seen to be.

No war, no hardship, just pure joy.

"Who's there? Outsiders have no business in the woods."

The voice of familiarity washed over him. 

Freida!

The blond Kokiri moved towards his giggles and crunching of leaves, a spear pointed in front of her. All she needed was a glance and her stance slackened as she drank in Link's presence.

"Link? Dear goddesses, where have you been?!" Freida dropped the carved wooden spear she brandished, pulling the boy into an embrace.

Safety warmed his heart with the girl's familiar scent of fern and honey. Freida's fairy partner nudged Link's ears and whispered welcomes. 

He giggled as the fairy tickled the cartilage with his light, gentle wingbeats. The way only fairies greeted each other and others was to dust each other with their wings; a comforting gesture Link's own fairy friend did often when she needed his attention or a kind gesture.

"Oh, everyone will be so thrilled to see you alive! It's felt like years since you left..."

It had been years for Link. But, he would never tell a soul that. That was his burden to carry. The boy just smiled, and laughed appreciatively.

Her eyes filled with confusion but she shook her head as she picked up her weapon and gestured Link with a "C'mon!" as she ran back into the forest. Link had no problem following her, as he had learned every inch of this forest when he had grown up.

Soon, the leafy growths sparsed out into a clearing filled with music.

Kokiri immediately greeted Freida at the entrance, soon moving their eyes to who had been following the girl.

"Link!" A Kokiri by the name of Collin yiped, the boy being beckoned closer. He smiled, greeting Collin, and the other who had immediately ran to Freida, Erin.

Collin's outburst did gain the attention of many others, however, and soon the whole town bombarded the boy with kind words and welcomes. 

But, this also attracted their leader.

Mido.

The crowd grew quiet as Mido trudged forward through his people. Link only smiled and waved.

"So you returned? A courageous move, if I will admit." He bit, his ears drawn back, his shoulders squared. "After what you did."

Link soon scowled and raised his hands to defend himself, his words silenced as Mido's hands placed themselves atop Link's smaller ones.

Though, Mido's eyes softened and his shoulders slumped in relief. "Though, it is good to see you again. After Saria vanished we slowly grew farther apart with the amount of losses we'd suffered."

Somber curled around the Kokiri. Link moved his hands to ask Mido a question when he got the other's attention.

" _Saria is not here_?"

Mido nodded. "Saria went into the Lost Woods and has had yet to return. She's been gone for weeks. Not long after you had left, actually."

A hand pressed to his shoulder. "I'm sorry, I know how important she was to you." Freida comforted.

_Zelda promised everything would be normal again..._

Link's head snapped back to Mido. He raised his hands to him, gaining the ginger's attention once more.

" _Take me to her favorite place._ "

"The Sacred Forest Meadow? Link, she isn't there-" Mido started, but Link only moved towards the entrance to the Lost Woods with renewed vigor. 

"Wait here." Mido ordered the Kokirian crowd as he followed Link.

-

_Zelda promised everything would return to normal._

_Zelda promised me._

Mido's calls of his name fell onto his drawn ears deafly.

_Zelda promised she would be back here._

Link broke into a sprint through the maze the woods posed until he came to the opening of the Sacred Forest Meadow.

He stopped, drawing his sword and shield.

"LINK!"

Mido's cry finally reached him, Link turning around to look at him.

"She's not here." Mido huffed as he bared his teeth. "She's gone."

Link stood stoic. 

"I know, she was the only one you trusted in hearing your voice. But she's gone."

_No._

He his back to Mido, sprinting through the maze that lead to the canopy Saria played her song. 

Mido ran after him.

Link tripped over stair upon stair as the canopy he knew so well yawned before him.

His eyes fell on the stump Saria was to be perched on.

_No._

_No, Zelda promised me._

_I was going to get that time back._

_She promised._

Tears brimmed in his eyes as he fell over the cold stump.

The forest lacked his friend's song of greenery. The song she never named, but taught to Link with a smile. 

He grew unaware to his surroundings as he started to cry.

Crying curses to Zelda for being wrong. For lying to him.

How many sleepless nights he'd stayed awake staring up at the sky only trudging forward because he knew everything would go back to the way it was when his job was done tore his heart open.

How many times he wished to be a kid again. 

How many battle wounds he nearly succumbed to only for memories and hopes to spur him on.

How many times he played Saria's song to just know she was alive and well and supported him all the way.

_A thing that does not change with time is the memory of younger days._

Zelda told him that. 

"I want my time back." Link sobbed to himself.

Bells tingled in his ears, soft wingbeats brushing his ears.

Mido's fairy.

Link rose and turned to face Mido with his sword drawn to his neck. But he soon fell to his knees, letting go of his sword and sheild.

Mido crouched next to him, unwavering.

"I told you she wouldn't be here."

" _I know_." Link signed.

They stood silent, until Link found through his anxiety his own voice.

"Someone promised me everything would return to as it was."

"Why would anything change in the first place?"

"You don't understand. No one ever will." Link slumped, Mido's fairy softly whispering tiny bells of comfort. "It's all my burden. No one else knows."

"What don't I know? Your word vomit makes no coherent sense."

"You were all going to die."

Mido stood quiet, and then scoffed. "The Great Deku Tree would've told us something that important, wouldn't he? He knows all."

"He knew. He told me. That's why I left with Navi and was sent to the Princess. That's why he died. He was protecting the Kokiri Emerald." Link stopped only for a second. "Ganondorf did this. He tore into people and lied to them promising them Din's Power."

"Ganondorf? Cheif of the Gerudo who was killed recently?"

"I killed him."

He lay quiet. 

"And I have killed much more than he. Monsters controlled by him, evil ghosts and phantoms that stared into your soul and should never be seen by the naked eye." Link spat with malice, he knew all of this seemed absurd and like children's stories. "Me and Zelda had to stop him. He held the Triforce of Power. He needed to be stopped. He needed to stop hurting them. He needed to die. He was going to hurt Saria, Malon, Ruto, Sheik, Rauru- He would've killed them. I was the only one that could hold the Master Sword against him."

Mido stared at him as he cried his story. Though, he only sighed out, "Link, you don't expect me to believe your story, do you?"

Link clenched his fists and scratched into his skin that held the burn mark of the Triforce of Courage. " _That_ has lead me to hurt the things that threatened to hurt innocent people. I was the only one who could." 

He stared at the ground, feeling like vomiting.

"So many people pushed their issues onto my shoulders." Link scowled, digging his fingers into his arms, drawing blood. "I was a child. Only a child. And they pushed chore after chore onto me like I was some slave." He trembled. Shaking like a leaf in the wind.

"I've given up. I travelled through time to stop this malice and I was promised everything would be the same and it's not it's not it's not-!"

"Hey." Mido scooted closer to the hurt boy.

He opened his arms for the boy to fall into.

And that he did.

Link sobbed into Mido's chest for what felt like hours, answering Mido's questions and sharing what hell he had experienced trying to save Hyrule.

Mido listened and he started to believe in what Link was telling him.

Link stopped crying after a while, calmed slightly Mido's fingers brushing through his hair.

"I missed you," Link said. "Even though you're a prick, I missed your comments that kept me going."

Mido chuckled. "I missed you too. And hey," He placed his hands on Link's shoulders. "You'll get that time back. You'll always be a Kokiri."


End file.
